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Johnny "Thumb" Tangredi
Johnny "Thumb" Tangredi is the fictional main character of ''The Adventures of Johnny Thumb''. Early Life John Giuseppe Tangredi was born on June 13th, 1905, in Syracuse, Sicily to Cecelia and Giuseppe Tangredi. Johnny's father and Uncle Giovanni were mafiosi whose criminal exploits in Italy were going well for them until the authorities began to crack down on Mafia factions in their area. In order to escape arrest, the family moved itself to the Bronx borough of New York City in 1906 where they continued their criminal dealings. Johnny had a fairly pampered childhood due to his family's income, and for the most part he was unaffected by his father's business. It wasn't until 1911, when Johnny's father was slain by an Irish street gang that he began to see the reality of what his family dealt in. After the death of Johnny's father, Giovanni became the boss of the family. Johnny and his elder brother Luigi were named second in command and where to assume their positions as soon as they were old enough. After graduating from high school, Johnny assumed the role as Giovanni's second in command. Luigi relinquished his command possition to become the family accountant. It was during this time that Johnny became known as "Thumb", for his notorious signature of cutting opponents thumbs off. Tangredi's Doughnuts In 1918, the Tangredi Family opened up a doughnut shop in the Bronx as a front to their counterfeiting and racketteering operation. After Johnny graduated from high school in 1923, he oversaw the operations of the doughnut shop. With the onset of the Prohibition period, Johnny saw to the basement of the shop becoming a speakeasy, where the family made a huge profit off the sale of illegal liquor. With the end of the Prohibition in 1933, the shop reverted to the manufacturing of counterfeit dollars. The counterfeit operation continued until 1945, when they were almost found out by the police. The doughnut shop was supposedly still in operation in the 1980s, and in all it's years it has been, ironically, a favorite place of the Bronx NYPD. Later Years After 1945, Johnny focused all of his attention on building and running his Las Vegas casino, the Thumb Palace. As of 2009 it was still in operation, being headed by Johnny's son, Woodrow. Woodrow, of course, claims not ties to the Mafia. Johnny Tangredi died in 1989 of cardiac arrest at the age of 84. Personal Life Seff Meyers Johnny met his life long friend and business partner, Seff Meyers, while the two of them were in elementary school. The two of them became friends when Johnny defended Seff against bullies on the playground. The introverted and timid Seff would hold Johnny in the utmost revereance and esteem from then forward. This esteem is perhaps what convinced Seff to join Johnny's gang after dropping out of high school. Seff soon became Johnny's righ hand man, and the two became such close friends that they would do anything or each other. Even after Seff opted out of the business in 1946, they continued to be good friends. JJ and Lorraine While in high school, Johnny met a fellow student named Lorraine Mecklenberg. The two of them had a brief relationship until Lorraine dropped out of highschool and seemingly fell off the face of the earth. In 1933, when Johnny had all but forgotten Lorraine, CPS came to his door and gave him sole custody of eleven-year-old JJ Tangredi, the child with whom he'd had with Lorraine. Having no prior knowledge of JJ's existence, Johnny was rather reluctant to take the child in, until he heard the tragic story about how Lorraine had suddenly died of pneumonia, and her parents could not afford to take care of JJ themselves. At first JJ and Johnny did not get along with each other. However, after a few days of living together, they decided to give each other a chance and ended up become very close. Suzette Suzette Francour was Johnny's long-time girlfriend and, later, his wife. From 1925 to 1934, Johnny and Suzette maintained a long distance relationship (she lived in France), despite the fact that the relationship was often strained. Several times Suzette accused Johnny of not remaining faithful to her and threatened to leave him, but she always kept coming back to him. Finally in 1934 the couple married. Together they had three children, Cherie, Clarissa, and Woodrow. Relationships With Other Characters Detective Spurlock Detective Jones Spurlock of the NYPD first became interested in the Johnny "Thumb" case after several severed thumbs were found in the Hudson River in 1933. After taking the position of head of the Organized Crime Squad, Spurlock began a ten year conquest to capture Johnny, a feat that the detective never accomplished. Character Development The character was created by Hannah Bottenberg as a parody character, and was later developed by both Hannah and her mother, Sue, as the main character of their series. Category:Johnny Thumb Characters